Can anyone shed some light on what is going on with "Placer County Land Speculators LLC"?

For the last two weeks the Wednesday edition of the Roseville Press-Tribune has published in the Public Notices section, a very interesting Notice of Trustee Sale. It covers one entire page plus one column. It lists 200 individual investors by name and investment amount, a long, vague and legalese description of property plus assets and finally the debt owed.

The dollar amount invested by the 200 individual investors (and I'm assuming this cash to have already been lost), is $27,500,000. The amount of the debt being foreclosed upon is $51,799,126.95.

Maybe I'm stupid but this looks like a nearly $80,000,000 bloodbath right here in Placer County. I know there will be some recovery on the land sale but holy cow!

Why is this not a news story? Have I just missed it? Anyone have any details?

Placer County Land Investors, LLC (f/k/a Placer County Land Speculators, LLC), which owns a project called Placer Vineyards, 338 acres of a master-planned community about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento, Calif.

Here's more on "Placer Vineyards" from the Placer County website:

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Placer Vineyards Specific Plan project is a mixed-use master planned community with residential, employment, commercial, open space, recreational and public/quasi-public land uses. The Plan, which has been slightly revised since the circulation of the Revised Draft EIR, will provide for 14,132 homes in a range of housing types, styles, and densities. At Plan build out, projected to occur over a 20 to 30-year time frame, Placer Vineyards will have a population of approximately 33,000 people, 274 acres of commercial uses, 641 acres of quasi-public (public facilities/services, religious facilities, schools, and major roadways) land uses, and 919 acres of park and open space land. The Board of Supervisors approved this Plan on July 16, 2007 and filed a Notice of Determination the same day.

That sign is not located on the site of the project they are selling. That sign is referring to a beazer project called 'cottage gardens' which is about a mile away on sheldon. The floorplan they are pricing at $199,990 is 957 square feet, so yeah, i'd say it's still very overpriced. of course, $199,990 is just the base price they advertise, but if you walk in and you are actually interested, they will be VERY flexible on the price, either by simply discounting it a great deal, or offering huge incentives. you have to understand, builders are desperate to rid themselves of inventory.

Looks like Reynen & Bardis paid Pulte almost $48 million for it's stake of the Vineyards project last January. Reynen & Bardis is the builder that's behind on almost $2 million in back taxes to Sac County.

The Placer County Land Speculators LLC loan is a piece of the $962MM USA Capital bankruptcy debacle that left many individual 'direct lenders' holding the bag. The principals of USA Capital lured investors, retirees, etc into this ponzi scheme and in some cases loaned the money to themselves. I am almost certain that the principals of USA Capital, Thomas Hantges and Joseph Milanowski, were involved with the Placer Vineyards investment.